Probably. Go read some good FF comics. Either the old-school Lee/Kirby stuff or Mark Waid’s run.
The silver dollar is an allusion to Judas Iscariot, the man who betrayed Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver. That epic can be found in the Gospels of the New Testament. In the Holy Bible.
I was never a fan of the fantastic four in concept or execution but the lee/kirby stuff is really good so far. Maybe it’s because when I was reading marvel it was during the time when alicia turned out to be a skrull, thing got his face slashed by wolverine and had to wear the helmet, etc
Yeah. The Fantastic Four comics were really bad when we were kids. All that weak DeFalco stuff, and then the Jim Lee run and Heroes Reborn and crap… They even had Claremont earlier this century. It’s just sad to see that Marvel’s most important title of the Silver Age had fallen so low. I even thought the cartoon was bad. That disco theme song by Christopher Franke… That’s some genuine WTF right there.
And everybody keeps saying that Byrne’s run back in the '80s was classic, but I read his Galactus story (which some people say was his best) and thought it was complete ass. Maybe it’s something you can only enjoy if you were born before 1975, or if you’re a Byrne loyalist. Even if I didn’t know he did that story, though, it still sucks.
Things have been improving these past few years, though.
I’ve always thought that everything about Byrne is overrated and wonder what kind of drugs comic fans were on back then.
Aside from the superhero community, no one knows that. Matt Murdock was trying to seperate his secret and superhero identity.
The Fantastic Four was great during the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby era. That’s why all the cartoons were based from that era.
And don’t you forget Dr. Doom the greatest super villain of all time (IMO). He has already accomplished all of his goals. He has already defeated Reed Richards, rescued his Mother’s soul from Mephisto, and conquered Earth. Make Mine Doom.
IMO John Byrne’s only good run for me was Man of Steel. It wasn’t on Alan Moore’s level but it was adequate enough(compare it to the rest of the Superman writers before that isn’t named Alan Moore)
I would rather read just about any Silver Age or Pre-Crisis Superman comic than Byrne’s Man of Steel. I think goody will back me up on this.
Back then Superman’s origin wasn’t really detailed enough and John Byrne took advantage of that with Man of Steel.
Compare it to the recent influx of Superman’s origins variation like Smallville, and Birthright.
And Oh come on, John Byrne’s Superman has once been the son of Darkseid. Compare that with a Silver Age story of Superman having a hardtime with Master Jailer.
Birthright beats Man of Steel all to hell. All-Star Superman (aka Pre-Crisis Superman) shits all over anything Byrne ever did with any character at any company at any point in history (and the present and future).
At least even bad Silver Age Pre-Crisis Superman stories still have a naive charm to them that can make you smile. Byrne’s comics, if they ever can be amusing, are only high on the unintentional comedy. Byrne just thought he could do things better than all those old dudes, as if there were something broken with Superman that had to be fixed. He never realized there wasn’t anything wrong with Superman. Didn’t we go over this in the Superman thread already? Next you’ll be telling me Flash can fly because he can run on air molecules…
I got two more volumes of Concrete and the first volume of the Ryu Final manga.
Ryu Final is cool, he beats up everyone and Oro tags along making old man jokes.
Didn’t read Concrete yet. He will probably get into more misadventures with his giant alien body. My comic shop seems to really be moving towards a more organized bookish format.
I was happy to find copies of Daisy Kutter and Scott Pilgrim there. My friend bought 3 volumes of Usagi Yojimbo. ( I had to settle for 2 concrete volumes, I don’t want to buy a bunch of them and just not read them )
You’re just shitting on John Byrne for the hell of it. I don’t like Birthright so there. And that wasn’t the reason why I said Flash could fly. He can outrun gravity, at that rate he could just fucking wave his legs at super speed and he could create a force that would propel him to fly. Or yet run around the world enough times that when he jumps it can shoot him straight into space.
Comics physics is dumb. You can’t accept my theory yet you can accept superheroes can fucking have a conversation while talking at speeds faster than sound(Read Grant Morrison’s JLA run the one where JLA is in Rann).
I looked up Byrnes just to see if I didn’t mix him up with someone else. He’s the one who did the first few years of MoS, right? The one who revived Kent’s adopted parents; the one who made Supes god-tier instead of broke-tier, introduced Metallo and Bloodsport (I think) and so on. If so, then he’s good. Sure, Superman didn’t develop much during Byrne’s run and the stories where…Easily metabolized, so to speak. But still, there was a certain charm to it, because it hadn’t immediately adjusted to post-crisis era yet. It was more spray-on-silver age.
Don’t forget he also wrote that good story about Superman and 3 Kryptonian escapees from the Phantom Zone.
John Byrne may suck now, but you have to give credit when credit is due.
That’s the story arc that preluded the Exile-saga, where he ended up fighting against Mongul, right? Damn, didn’t know he wrote that one.
Edit: I know this isn’t the Superman-topic but I just have to add that the Eradicator is one of the worst plot-devices/deus ex machinas I’ve stumbled upon.
No, I think I’ll actually give that credit to William Woolfolk, who wrote the original “three Kryptonian supervillains” story over 30 years prior.
Byrne’s run on Supes is complete ass. He fucked the books over for years to come and his understanding of the character was utterly wrong. I’ll take the wackiest, weirdest pre-Crisis Superman story over any given John Byrne story.
Hate it inturrupt the Superman debate (sorry!) but i just now picked up the first hardcover for Marvel Knight’s Daredevil, and the story Kevin Smith wrote was just amazing stuff, can’t believe i’m just now reading that.
It started out kind of slow and took me a bit to actually get past the first couple of issues, but that ending just had me holding the book thinking “Wow” to myself.
I beg to differ. You did like Death of Superman(is it you?)?
Anyway to John Byrne’s credit, he made She-Hulk and Alpha Flight popular. I enjoyed his run on both comics.
You’re joking, right?
I forgot who liked it… That’s why I asked, didn’t I?
Everybody likes The Death of Superman, aka The Second Greatest Comics Epic of All Time (second after the Clone Saga). Didn’t you know it’s the highest selling graphic novel in history? That means that it’s the most popular Superman story and, thus, completely awesome. Come on, kaney. Get with the program.
Reign of the Supermen was also a superb sequel. Some might think that the Eradicator is the worst deus ex machina in superhero history, but I say it’s ALL SKILL, BABY. He’s just that powerful and cool.
Also, damn straight I was shitting on Byrne just for the hell of it. I can’t really think of a nicer guy to shit on.